On November 8, hundreds of nurses who work at the Worcester-based hospital campuses of UMass Memorial Medical Center chanted and marched in front of the system’s University Medical Center campus to call for desperately needed improvements in patient care conditions at this major tertiary care provider. The picketing was called after the 2,000 nurses represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association on the University Hospital and Memorial/Hahnemann campuses of UMMMC have been engaged in nearly a year of negotiations for a new union contract, with little progress on a number of key issues, including the nurses’ call for safer RN staffing levels. The nurses are outraged about deteriorating working conditions, a lack of resources, and untenable patient loads following more than six layoffs involving hundreds of RNs and support staff over the last two years.
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